Saturday, March 1, 2014

CN's Kingston Sub in the 1950's, Part 2

Continuing our trip from Part 1 along CN's Kingston Sub, via the photos of the John W Barriger III National Railroad Library, we are departing Belleville station as passengers parade on the platform. In Part 2, I'll again refer to the photo numbers in brackets such as [242] above. I'll present the photos as if we're still heading west to Toronto. A re-formatted version of the photo shows an F-unit in the yard, centre of photo. CN received its F-units as early as 1951 - another photo in the CN collection shows CN 9060 in northern Ontario, so it's safe to say these photos date from the early 1950's.

Looking west, we're leaving Belleville, approaching the Moira River bridge.[450] Hey kid! Not a good place to practice your skipping or sprinting!

Looking back at the other side of the bridge from the Moira Street crossing [243]. Today an osprey roosts here and makes trips to the 'fish buffet' in the river.

Approaching the Trent River bridge. The Trent-Severn Waterway is beneath us.[244]

Not sure where this photo is taken; any ideas? It includes a nice mix of pastoral and industrial. Notice the old brick building at left, yard switchers, plant water tower and overpass in distance. I believe it may be just east of Toronto. Hmmm.[455]

A sweeping curve, showing the usual fine ballast and subroadbed of the Kingston Sub, likely at Oshawa. [459]

Strong backs and labour was cheap [445]. An extra gang of more than 20 section men work in some new ballast near two classic wooden bridges. Can't picture this location today? That's because it's now within the property of the Darlington nuclear plant. Today all this work could likely be done by a two or three tamper track machines.

Here's the culprit, giving those gandy-dancers all that work. A work train behind MLW-built S-1-f 3501 with a mix of ballast cars [446], and some attentive section men near the caboose. Notice how the ballast behind the train is light-coloured, clean and new as in the photo above.

At Bowmanville, there is more trackwork in progress [447]. The section gang is working on the south track, and our train (actually eastbound) is changing tracks with the gang in the clear. Notice an underpass with white-painted guardrails and a spur with wheel stops at right. In the distance, another set of concrete mileposts could give us the exact location.

Now we're at Port Hope (two photos). The photo following the one above [448] shows the CN and CP bridges on a cloudy, humid or rainy day:

Sun's up, uh-huh, looks OK [462], another view of the Port hope bridges, with the station in left background, then an approaching CN wayfreight and CP's bridge over the Ganaraska River at right.

Here is Port Hope freight shed and station [461]. The wayfreight is behind CN 1123, and the Smith Street level crossing is in foreground.

Cobourg. Note CP's wooden water tower and station at left. CN's water tower is in mid-photo [466]. Distortion, such as the telegraph pole, and some blurring is evident in some of these classic photos taken at speed from a moving train.

The CP main line crosses back to the north on the west side of Cobourg [465] and a CP freight happens to be up on the bridge as we pass by.

Yet another signal bridge looms as does the Royal York Hotel [441] at far right.

The Barriger Library is a unique, nearly fathomless resource that is meant for sharing. Curator Nick Fry was kind enough to comment, expressing his approval for the sharing and enjoyment of these images for Trackside Treasure readers. These scans of copy negatives were made in the 1990's from the original nitrates. Good news - there are more to come, according to Nick!

Fortunately for us, the library has placed 119 sets of photos on the photo-sharing site Flickr. Here are some Barriger Library Flickr photo collection links for your viewing and sharing pleasure:

Thanks to Keith Hansen and Tom Box for confirming some of the locations shown in these fine photographs.

Running Extra...

In the August 2013 edition of Esquire magazine, author Mark Warren wove a thoughtful tale entitled The Father You Choose. This paragraph resonated with me, and pertains to any good parent:
"A man doesn't go and announce, I am going to be an example for you, I will show you how to live. He just carries himself through the world. And the most important lessons aren't declared or obvious, but more likely come along in the commonplace."

But one reason I like that passage is because the author is not afraid to start a sentence with a co-ordinating conjunction. And that's one thing I like about it. But not the only thing. For some reason, it's become popular to start sentence after sentence with another co-ordinating conjunction these days: "So, today we're going to build a bookshelf." "So first, we're going to select our lumber".

Hockey trivia...who was the only Team Canada player repeatedly referred to solely by his first name in the call of the Sochi Winter Olympics mens' gold medal hockey game?

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Rather Sketchy Profile

Eric Gagnon was born in Montreal, Quebec and has lived in Kingston, Ontario most of his life. Much time was spent trackside when not in school, college or practising as a medical laboratory technologist. Married with two children, Eric is also an HO-scale modeller, musician, avid reader and blogger, having launched his Canadian railfan blog Trackside Treasure in 2008. Eric's first book Trackside with VIA:The First 35 Years, published in 2011, was followed by two more in 2012: Trackside with VIA:Cross-Canada Compendium and Consist Companion. In 2017, Eric published his fourth book, Trackside with VIA - Research & Recollections. Eric's books can be found in museum gift shops, hobby shops and in the hands of VIA Rail enthusiasts across Canada, the United States and worldwide.

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